Contents

History

Macedonians have been immigrating to North America for over a century, but distinctly Macedonian Orthodox parishes were not founded outside the jurisdiction of the Church of Bulgaria until the 1960s, when the establishment in Yugoslavia of the Macedonian Orthodox Church prompted Macedonians in the United States and Canada to begin organizing parishes under the jurisdiction of the newly independent church. The Diocese of America and Canada was founded at the third All-Macedonian Council held in Ohrid, Yugoslavia, in 1967, after which the Macedonian Orthodox Holy Synod elected Metropolitan Cyril of Toronto as ruling hierarch of the new diocese.[note 1]

After 1987 the Diocese passed back and forth between various administrators and the oversight of Archbishop Stephen of Ohrid, first hierarch of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. In April 2006 Bishop Methodius of Velika was appointed diocesan administrator, later in the year being elected Metropolitan of America and Canada and enthroned on September 2, 2006 in Toronto's Cathedral of St. Clement of Ohrid.

Diocese today

The Diocese of America and Canada today consists of 19 parishes and two monastic communities in the United States as well as nine parishes and one monastic community in Canada. Its diocesan seat is in Toronto, Ontario.

See also

Notes

↑ In 1967 the Church in Macedonia unilaterally declared its autocephaly from the Serbian Orthodox Church, a move which is not recognised by any of the churches of the Eastern Orthodox Communion, and since then, the Macedonian Orthodox Church is not in communion with any Orthodox Church.